Texas football: 3 overreactions from upset loss to TCU in Week 9
By John Scimeca
2. TCU is the best football program in the Lone Star state
The argument for TCU as the best college football team in the enormous state of Texas is a tenuous one, to be sure. But the Horned Frogs can make a compelling argument.
Texas may have won last year against the Horned Frogs, but TCU has now beaten Texas in five of the last six meetings, and six of the last eight. In 2014 and 2015, the Horned Frogs won 48-10 and 50-7, respectively, against the Longhorns. Saturday’s 37-27 TCU victory was hardly an outlier.
TCU was a highly successful team in the Mountain West and largely maintained that status in its move to the Big 12 in 2012. In each of its final four seasons, TCU won at least 11 games and compiled a 45-5 record — including a 2010 Rose Bowl victory to cap off an undefeated 13-0 season.
Since joining the Big 12, TCU has won at least 11 games in three separate seasons — including a near-miss at the inaugural College Football Playoff in 2014. The Horned Frogs would finish at No. 3 in the final AP poll of the year, a better mark than any school from the state of Texas.
Texas, on the other hand, has struggled mightily in this past decade. One four-year stretch from 2014 to 2017 yielded a 23-27 record, and the team has four losing seasons since 2010.
The other candidates? Texas A&M has lost at least five games in every season but one since 2014. After an 11-2 season in the Aggies’ first year in the SEC, they’ve mostly been an above-average, underachieving program. Texas Tech hasn’t won more than 10 games since 2008.